Watson’s deal carries $650,000 in incentives. He’ll still have a chance to earn the extra money.

Per a league source, Watson gets $250,000 if he participates in 35 percent of the team’s offensive snaps. He’ll get another $400,000 if he makes it to 45 percent.

Missing 25 percent of the season will make it harder to reach those limits, but far from impossible. He’ll basically need to get eight game’s worth of snaps in 12 games. So basically he’ll need to get roughly 66 percent of the snaps in the remaining games of the year to earn the full incentives. And he’ll need roughly half of the snaps in the remaining games of the year to get the first $250,000.

Watson will still lose In all $416,117 in salary and per-game roster bonuses. He also will lose, PFT has learned, $141,176 of his $600,000 signing bonus. The lower thresholds for the incentives were aimed at helping Watson earn back more than $550,000 in losses, and roughly $100,000 more if he gets to at least 45-percent playing-time for the season.

All the cards were on the table when the deal was done. The deal was structured for Ben to have a realistic chance to earn a certain amount of money this year and probably the suspension has very little effect on his earnings. Besides, he is likely to play in 15 games this year (including playoffs) which is plenty for a 38yo tight end.

wouldn’t do it for free, but he wants the ring more than the moolah, and bill wrote him a good enough contract with the suspension in mind. bill usually gets his money’s worth and if not his losses are in high reward : risk ratios.